Diaries of a Teenage Outcast
by Vanguard1219
Summary: A novelization of the events of Borderlands 2 (and it's DLC), "Diaries" focuses on the story of Gaige, including her life on Eden-5 prior to the "Science Fair Incident" with the occasional ECHOcast in between chapters to break up the action. Aims to match both the humorous/dramatic tones of the game while updating regularly.
1. Prologue - Let Me Tell You a Story

_Borderlands, all assosiated characters, locations, brands, story elements, and just about anything else that can be laid claim to is property of Gearbox Software and 2KGames. This is a fan work, and the author recognizes that he doesn't own the rights to the characters within and states that the following is merely an _interpretation_ of the game's events as retold by him. Take that for what you will._

_All beta reading and editing for this work has been done by Chika Croi. The cover artwork is by *doubleleaf, who's gallery can be found on deviantART.  
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_This prologue (clearly) and the first few initial ECHOcasts are going to more-or-less be direct lifts from the game and it's associated media, respectively, to keep in line with continuity. Please bear with us through the first few initial chapters until we're at a point where _original_ ECHO content can be added.  
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_We appreciate your patience, and for the love of all that is holy, if this work doesn't appear to update for a while, message the writer and brow-beat the hell out of him until it does.  
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_Sincerely,  
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_The Management  
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* * *

Hello, humble readers. It's nice of you to stop by.

So, you want to hear a story, huh? One where the very fate Pandora hangs in the balance?

If not, too goddamn bad. I'm telling it anyway.

First, there was the Vault: an alien prison opened with a mystical key. To the warriors who opened it, the Vault was just a container of tentacles and disappointment. They vanished into the wastelands, certain that the Vault held no treasure at all.

They were wrong.

The Vault's opening triggered the growth of Eridium, a priceless alien element. Soon, the rare and valuable mineral emerged all across Pandora. Its appearance attracted many. Including the Hyperion Corporation.

They came to Pandora to mine Eridium, and bring order to the savage planet. Through their excavations, Hyperion uncovered evidence of an even greater Vault. Their leader vowed to find it, to use its power to civilize the Borderlands, once and for all. But Hyperion weren't the only ones searching for the next Vault's alien power.

The call of danger and loot is not so easily resisted. Certain warriors came to Pandora in droves to uncover its hidden secrets. Some would call them adventurers. Others call them fools. Most, however, call them Vault Hunters.

This story, however, does not begin that simply. No, like most great stories our hero stumbles into it out of a complete absence of luck and mere chance.

So our story starts, worlds away, with a girl, and a dream…


	2. ECHOcast 1

+ECHOcast Transcript Log

+ECHOname: "Mechromancer"

_+Hello to you, my faithful _twelve_ subscribers (sounds of beeps on ECHO device can be heard) uhp, eleven. As you all know, the Eden-5 Youth Science Fair is only weeks away. Marcie Holloway's already got her dad's indentured laborers working on a miniature thermosonic energy reactor. Because evidently _all the money in the galaxy_ can't buy you originality. Stupid rich bourgeoisie jerkbags. Marcie never had to work a day in her life to get where she is. ANARCHY FOREVER! SMASH THE SYSTEM! _

+(heard in the background)_ Gaige, honey. Keep it down? Your mother's trying to sleep. _

_+Sure, dad! _(whispers)_ Smash the system! _(normal tone of voice)_ Anyway, I've come up with a science project that will make Marcie's thermo reactor look like an interocitor. _

+(laugher, followed by a very undignified sounding snort)

_+I'm calling it the Mechanized Anti-Bully Deterrent Test, or Project DT. It's only in the prototype stages right now, but I have mathematically determined that it is going to be OFF THE CHAIN. Basically, the idea is that if you deploy a DT unit in a school environment, it's going to CLAMP DOWN on bullying by finding bullies and BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF 'EM. _

+(background voice)_ Gaige, sweetheart? Volume. _

_+Oh, sorry dad! It won't happen again! _

+(background voice)_ It's fine, dear. Love you. _

+(whispering**)**_ It's totally gonna happen again. Gaige, out! _

+ECHOcast Transcript Ends


	3. Ch 1 - The Young Anarchist

**Eden-5**

With those parting words to her twel-sorry, _eleven_ faithful listeners Gaige pressed the record button on her ECHO device, content with her most recent broadcast. Granted, most _other_ ECHOcasters might re-record their thoughts to spare their listeners the awkwardness of listening to their fathers talk to them from a bedroom away, but not her. She thought it made her sound more _genuine_.

This exact kind of thing is one of the _many_ reasons her ECHOfeed has steadily been hemorrhaging subscribers, along with talking about science content that next to no one understands and a complete lack of videos of cats.

Gaige leaned as far back in her chair at it would allow her and she let out a light yawn. It was a little bit past midnight already she had to wake up early to make it to school in the morning, but she really didn't care. Ever since she had gotten the idea she had been a manic ball of pent up excitement. She _couldn't_ sleep now; she had too much work to do. She could sleep when she was dead.

Well, that or at school during class. No one ever seemed to have anything worthwhile to say in that craphole anyway.

Her bright green eyes idly scanned the walls of her room, which were almost exclusively plastered with posters for the type of bands that disenfranchised, put upon teenagers stereotypically tend to identify with these days. The only exception to this being the wallspace above her desk, which was a confusing mess of technical drawings scrawled on blue drafting paper.

Gaige had drawn all of the sketches in the past few hours. All _fifty-seven_ of them. A person tends to be capable of such things when they're highly motivated and a manic ball of pent up excitement.

Like most inventions, the DT Project is the product of necessity. _Perceived_ necessity, to be a bit generous. A giant hulking robot designed to stop bullying by _beating the life out of them_ is somewhat of an extreme reaction, but perhaps not to a girl who's had the books knocked out of her hands at every opportunity for her entire public school career. Now, that girl is still _wrong_, but she gets points for at least being proactive and turning that rage into something worthwhile. Something that still helps solve the problem with the possibility of no one getting a concussion.

Winning a science fair doesn't seem like it would be that big of a deal, but it's more what the fair represents. Gaige has always been a very clever girl, but as most clever people who've been in a public learning institution seem to think she's never thought that her cleverness was appreciated. Sure, the occasional teacher lauds her for her technical ingenuity and the like, but her classmates have never really seemed to give a damn. Probably because a 4.0 grade point average doesn't help anyone score touchdowns or whatever it is that you're suppose to score in those team sports her peers care about.

No, high school was a lost cause. Gaige just wanted to survive until graduation with as many accolades as she could manage so she could surround herself with people who would value her talents later. People that would _appreciate_ her. People that would be interested in what she had to say and wouldn't say that her favorite t-shirt with the skull on it looked stupid.

The DT Project was going to help her get away from these people. _Far away_. Away to a place where she'll feel like she matters.

So with a stretch Gaige leaned forward and hunched back over her desk, gingerly grabbing a pencil in her hand as she started sketching a rough design for the DT's outer chassis. The Science Fair was a little over a month away, so she had time to plan her design. Time to make it as close to perfect as she could manage. If she wins the fair- _And come on, how could I not, _she thought to herself- she would hopefully win some kind of scholarship. Hell, maybe if the right people notice even an _internship_ with one of the larger corporations. Maybe with Maliwan or even Vladof, perhaps something involving robotics, or at the very least a job making things that blow up other things.

And if that doesn't work, there's always Plan B: letting the DT pummel the utter crap out of anyone that ridicules her. It's not a perfect solution, but hey, a fallback is a fallback, and at the very least it'll make her feel better.


	4. Ch 2 - School Daze

**Eden-5**

_Why the heck didn't I get any sleep last night, _Gaige thought to herself as she half walked, half stumbled into her third period Unipolitics class. She had been up for a solid thirty-eight hours and fifty six minutes by the time she slumped down in her seat, ready to pass out in exhaustion. She had practically been sleepwalking her way through the day, and so far no one's seemed to notice.

She was starting to think that maybe she _shouldn't_ wait until she's dead to get some rest.

_Survive school _now_, work on getting a sleep schedule like a normal person later_. Gaige idly played with one of her pigtails and let out a yawn as she looked around the room. At the front of the class was a pair of podiums that were obviously pulled out of a storage closet somewhere so they could see the light of day. They were set up as if they were for a deba-

_Oh goddamnit, the debate._

Last week Professor Parker had randomly assigned everyone in class a current event and a stance that they had to argue for. Everyone was supposed to research the issue and build an argument around their stance so they could debate the issue in front of the rest of the class.

Somewhere between the announcement of the Science Fair and the mad science Gaige kind of… well, _forgot_.

_It's okay_, she rationalized, _there's plenty of groups to get called up and there's only time for one, maybe _two_ at most. He's not gonna call me._

A shrill, electronic tone buzzed through the air, making Gaige flinch in her desk as the class period started. With a heavy sigh, Professor Parker rose out from behind his desk at the front of the class to give a speech he had already given twice that morning.

"Alright, class, settle down," he began. "You can get back to pretending to be somewhere else in a minute, alright?" Mr. Parker gestured behind him to the work "debates" pointlessly written on the holoboard. "Last week I asked each of you to research an issue that's affecting a part of the Six Galaxies. To read up on it. To _understand_ it, and most important to form an opinion on it. Hopefully the opinion you _have_ matches the stance I arbitrarily assigned you, but that part doesn't really matter. A big part of the real world is caring about things that you don't give a damn about".

None of the students really had anything to say about that, save for the guy in the back who let out an awkward cough.

"Right, so would anyone like to volunteer to go first?"

Professor Parker was, predictably, greeted only by silence. Gaige nervously looked from person to person, hoping that someone would raise their hand or something.

The teacher sighed. "Alright, I'll just pick someone at random". Parker grabbed a list off of his desk and idly scanned it, deciding who to pick.

_Please don't call me_, Gaige thought, _please don't call me._

"Okay, who was assigned 'The Hyperion Occupation of Pandora'"?

_Oh for the love of- seriously?!_ Gaige sighed and raised her hand. "I was".

"Alright, Gaige, grab your notes and pick a podium. Who _else_ was assigned that issue"? Professor Parker looked around the room, waiting for a response. "Anyone? Anyone at all? C'mon, I know somebody was assigned it." His eyes finally settled on someone.

"Miss Halloway, no ECHOunits in class, okay? We've been over this". A girl with shoulder length bleached blonde hair looked up to meet his gaze, setting her bright pink, rhinestone covered ECHO onto her desk. "Sorry, Mr. Parker," she said, both her smile and her tone of voice condescending on just about every level imaginable.

"Are you Gaige's partner?"

Marcie scoffed. "Gawd, I _hope_ not". She chuckled to herself, thinking that she was terribly clever as she started looking at the new paintjob on her nails.

Mr. Parker sighed, clearly thinking that all that time spent getting a bachelors degree in education was time wasted. "Just get to the front of the class and do the assignment, okay?"

Marcie shrugged and got up from her desk, strutting to the front of the class. _UGH are you kidding me_, Gaige thought to herself. _Of all the people to be paired up with it had to be frick'n Marcie?_

Gaige and Marcie Halloway have never exactly "gotten along", to put it lightly. Marcie's family came from old money on Eden-5, so she had an overinflated sense of worth and importance for being loaded by _proxy_ and had never had to work for anything in her life. Why she was in public school was simply beyond Gaige. Maybe in private schools Marcie wasn't able to feel superior to everyone on account of being a shallow, vapid moron.

Marcie stood at her podium, flashing Gaige a smirk colored with sparkly pink lip gloss.

Professor Parker sat down behind his desk, looking from girl to girl before finally saying "Miss Frye, how about you go first?"

Gaige rolled her eyes. She hadn't actually prepared an argument, so she'd just have to b.s. her way through it. Not that it would keep her from verbally bitch-slapping Marcie anyway.

"So, Pandora. After _finally_ kicking the Atlas Corporation's jackbooted thugs off of the planet a few years back after the opening of the Vault, Pandora's people are under corporate rule _again_. This time it's the Hyperion Corporation rushing in to take everything over, now that the planet is suddenly rich with deposits of Eridium .Which doesn't _belong to them_, by the way. People _live_ on Pandora for… some reason, I don't know why, but it's _their_ home and _their_ land, and if anyone has mining rights to it, it's _them_. But does that stop Hyperion from just barging in _en masse_? Hell. No. They just _stormed on in_ without asking, in _force_, and just started claiming everything. I mean sure, apparently the planet doesn't have things like, you know, a _government_ to try to strike a deal with, but a full scale occupation is going too-"

"Um, excuse me, freakazoid," Marcie interrupted, "what is Panorama?"

Gaige just stared at the girl blankly for a second in disbelief. "You… you _can't_ be serious".

Marcie just twirled a finger through her hair and shot her a look that screamed "duh".

"Are you _kidding me_? How do you not know any of this? At _all_? Hyperion overtaking Atlas as the most powerful corporation in the Six Galaxies, the eridium mining, _alien technology_? Any of this? _Come on_, the Atlas thing should at least taken out a chunk in you trust fund. You have to have noticed _that_".

"Uhm, my dad says stock trading is stupid," she said as a matter of fact.

"What the- but how could you- this has been going on for _five years_! How do you just _miss_ that? Do you not listen to the news or pay attention to _anything_?!"

"Sure I pay attention to things," Marci said confidently. "Did you know that Chad Triton and Estella Reed are a couple after working together on that one movie?"

Gaige just stared, swearing that she could feel herself get dumber by the second.

This is around the time Professor Parker decided to intervene. "Miss Halloway, did you actually research your topic?"

"Well… no".

The overworked teacher just sighed and cradled his head in his hands. "Just- just sit down, both of you." He marked on his sheet that both girls got an "A" on the assignment, deciding that _not_ getting indirectly fired by Marcie's father and being forced to live out of a box was preferable to sticking with his morals.

Gaige sat back down in her desk and closed her eyes, hoping that when she woke up the day would just be over.

The loud, electronic tone that was the period bell rang inside of Gaige's ears, pulling her out of the light sleep she had finally managed to fall into. It was time for fourth period, which meant she had to get up, grab all of her crap, and drag herself to her next class to start the process all over again.

So she rose from her desk, sluggishly grabbed her messenger bag and her notebook and made for the door.

She didn't get far before she collided with Marcie out in the hallway, sending both Marcie's garishly decorated ECHOunit and all of Gaige's technical drawings tumbling to the ground.

"Watch where you're going, _freak!_" The spoiled rich girl bent down to grab her ECHO and caught a glimpse of the drawings, which were Gaige's first drafts of the DT Project.

"Oh, and what do we have _here_," Marcie taunted as she raised an eyebrow. "What, you don't have any friends so you have to build one?"

Gaige snatched the piece of paper out of Marcie's hand as she scrambled to collect her things. "Yeah, the thing about that is that it's none of your damn business, okay?"

Marcie tugged back on the piece of paper until it was ready to tear, still looking at it. "Are you giving this thing _eye lasers_? You're not planning on going on some kind of killing spree, are you?"

The paper finally gave, tearing in half. Gaige angrily crumpled up her half of the drawing in her hand before storming off, muttering something about Marcie being a nosy bitch under her breath as she walked away.


End file.
